Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

EXL to list on Nasdaq on Oct 20

October 16, 2006 17:02 IST
Noida-based BPO firm, EXL Service is likely to list its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market on October 20 after pricing its public issue of five million shares in the US market later this week.

EXLService Holdings, the parent company of business process outsourcing major, will set the price for its much awaited initial public offer on or about October 19, merchant banking sources said.

The company is most likely to fix the IPO price at the top end of its estimated price band of $10-12 that would give it a market cap of over $3 million, bankers added.

It has offered to sell 5 million shares and an IPO price of $12 per share would take the total issue proceeds to as much as $60 million.

EXL could raise up to $69 million from the issue of 5.75 million shares, including 750,000 shares that might be purchased by the underwriters at their option.

The company had first applied for its IPO in December 2004 through a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Earlier in July, the company had cut down its IPO size to $60 million, from $75 million previously.

According to the latest SEC filing made by the company, it estimates the net proceeds from the offering at about $48.7 million at an assumed IPO price of $11 per share, after deducting the underwriting discount and commission and estimated offering expenses of approximately $6.4 million.

EXL, which was founded in 1999 and is believed to have a headcount of over 7,000 employees, is primarily engaged in offering BPO services to the financial services and insurance industries.

The company's clients include global giants like Dell, American Express, Aviva and Prudential Financial. The company provides offshore BPO services to its clients in the US and Europe from its delivery centres in Noida and Pune.

EXL plans to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol 'EXLS'.

Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Thomas Weisel Partners are underwriters of the IPO. EXL's IPO follows a successful listing by another Indian BPO firm WNS on the NYSE earlier this year, which witnessed robust response from the investors and the issue was oversubscribed by more than 10 times.

WNS managed to raise over Rs 1,000 crore ($224 million) from the IPO of its 11.2 million American Depository Shares, which were priced at the top end of an estimated price band of $18-20 per ADS.

WNS, previously part of British Airways, attracted an initial market capitalisation of nearly $800 million, based on the IPO price of $20 per ADS. It currently commands a market cap of over a $1 billion.

© Copyright 2024 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.